exploring the world one place at a time

Why Traveling?

COUNTRY COUNT: 24

CURRENTLY IN: Dimako, Cameroon, Africa

RECENTLY IN: Lexington, Kentucky, USA

As an eighteen-year-old girl, I realize how blessed I am to have had all the opportunities to travel that I have so far. That being said, traveling has completely flipped my life upside-down and continues to spin me hundreds of different directions every time I step off a train or plane into a new place. I want to share my experiences with the world for a couple of reasons.

The first, and main, reason I started this blog to begin with, is so that my family has an idea of where I am, what I am doing, and essentially whether or not I’m alive considering I tend to fall off the grid when I am traveling.

The second reason is to inspire others. It’s so easy to make excuses as to why you can’t take time to travel. “I’m working.” “It’s expensive.” “It’s unsafe.” To an extent, these are all valid reasons… I guess. “I’m working.”

Okay, well there are these things called holidays and vacations- take advantage of them. Also, for those of you in school right now and reading this, this is the perfect time to travel. This is the one time in your life that you’re going to have the least amount of commitments. You probably are no longer living at your parents’ house, you’re probably going to college and with classes, you can only have a part-time job, you aren’t married, you don’t have children to look after. NOW IS THE TIME. Like my good friend Saul Bellow says, “Seize the day.”

It may be expensive at times to travel, but when I say travel I don’t necessarily mean drop hundreds of dollars on a plane ride to some exotic place where you can only manage to stay for a week. I mean just go somewhere you haven’t been. Drive a couple hours. Walk a couple minutes. Just explore someplace you haven’t gone before. At times the price tag may cause people to be apprehensive, but the benefits from traveling and the knowledge and experience you gain are undoubtedly worth it.

The “unsafe” reason not to travel is probably one of the more frustrating ones. Honestly, everywhere is unsafe. You can die basically doing anything, anywhere. Traveling is worth it. If you live afraid of the world you are never going to do anything. That doesn’t mean just run around foreign countries without any regard for anyone- common sense is important- but don’t stop yourself from exploring because the safety of the country is really just a cop-out way of saying you are afraid to try something new.

That being said, I really hope you enjoy reading about all my travels and I will do my very best to stay up-to-date as I re-format into a strictly travel blog.